Jata palm

The Essence

"Copernicia rigida is a Cuban endemic fan palm, and one of the most instantly recognisable members of its genus. It grows a solitary, cylindrical gray trunk to about 15 m, but the crown is what sets it apart: stiffly erect, wedge-shaped, almost circular leaves funnel into the centre, giving the whole tree a shuttlecock or shaving-brush look, with old leaves persisting as a brown skirt below. Its ligules are reported as the largest of any palm, up to 100 cm long and 21 cm wide. Palmpedia also carries an unsourced suggestion that some botanists have raised the possibility that the species is carnivorous, on the reasoning that its leaf funnel forms an effective trap in which small animals die and rot, supplying nutrients; this is speculation rather than established fact. In Cuba the leaves are used to thatch rural dwellings and to make hats, bags, baskets and brooms, while the stems, durable even when immersed in water, serve in construction and for fences. The genus is centred on Cuba: 22 of its 27 known species and natural hybrids occur only on the island."

Described by Britton and P. Wilson, first published in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 41: 17 (1914). The ligule measurements come from Dahlgren and Glassman's 1963 revision of Copernicia (Gentes Herbarum 9).